Trump’s FCC Just Moved Closer to Destroying Net Neutrality. Here’s How You Can Fight Back

The future of the Internet depends on what we do next.

May 18, 2017

The FCC just voted to move forward with Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to dismantle net neutrality. This means that his plan, ironically called “Restoring Internet Freedom,” will be opened for public comment and is one step closer to being implemented.

Before he was appointed by President Trump, Chairman Pai said that he’d like to take a “weed whacker” to the rules that guarantee net neutrality and his proposal promises to do just that. It undermines the strong Title II Internet protection rules that we won in 2015 and once again classifies the Internet under Title I of the Communications Act. Instead of guaranteeing that monopoly Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot create fast lanes and slow lanes online, Chairman Pai would tear down the legal framework that guarantees net neutrality and would allow ISPs to police themselves.

We all know how that will go but we can win this. During the proceeding that lead to the 2015 ruling, millions of people sent comments to the FCC. This year’s proceeding was just voted on today and activists fighting for the open Internet greeted it with a rally outside the FCC and the announcement that they’ve already collected over one million signatures and comments in support of net neutrality.

4) Combat misinformation about net neutrality spread by Chairman Pai and the telecommunications industry. Our friends at Free Press released a report this week refuting Chairman Pai’s claim that the Title II rules that guarantee net neutrality “stifled broadband investment.” You can read it here, then share on Facebook and Twitter. At The Nation, Victor Pickard recently wrote in more detail about the FCC’s “top-down corporate power grab.” You can read the article here, then share on Facebook and Twitter.

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